Throughout the history of laboratory medicine, the PhD scientist has played a role in developing new methods and algorithms that have contributed significantly to the field. Although the number of formally trained PhDs in laboratory medicine is currently small, they continue to play an important role in large, primarily academic, clinical laboratories and departments and in the in vitro diagnostics industry. This article discusses the importance of the formally trained PhD in today's laboratory medicine environment and the necessary training process, and approach for training PhDs at the postdoctoral level to have successful careers in laboratory medicine.